By HTE Founder, Erin Hughes
There are beauty events you attend and enjoy in the moment. Then there are those that leave you thinking about them long after you’ve left the room.
Chantelle Baker’s masterclass was the latter.
I was lucky enough to be there, and what struck me before we even got to the makeup was the feeling in the room.
It was warm, generous and genuinely excited. An incredible group of people had come together not simply to learn from Chantelle, but to support her. Clients, industry peers, makeup artists, friends and women wanting to learn something new filled the room. Some had even travelled interstate to be there.
That, in itself, tells you something about Chantelle Baker.
Of course, it is a testament to her extraordinary talent. But spending time with her, it becomes apparent that talent is only part of the reason people gravitate towards her.
There is a warmth to Chantelle that is immediate. She is funny, generous and remarkably humble about a career that has put her in rooms with some of the most recognisable people in the world. She talks about those clients not as celebrities to be impressed by, but as people. People who can feel vulnerable. People who have insecurities. People who want to feel comfortable in the chair.
And perhaps that is part of her magic.
For all her success, there is no sense that Chantelle believes she has arrived with all the answers. When she talks about the masterclass, she speaks less about what she achieved and more about the people who showed up for her. She was genuinely surprised by the support, grateful to the clients who volunteered to be involved and touched by the messages that arrived afterwards.
“I felt really grateful,” she says.
The thing that delighted her most wasn’t simply that people loved the night. It was receiving photographs afterwards from women who had gone home and tried what she’d taught them.
“Look, I did what you said.”
For Chantelle, that was the reward.
Because despite the beautiful faces, glamorous events and celebrity names associated with her career, her philosophy of beauty is surprisingly grounded.
Makeup doesn’t have to be complicated. It doesn’t have to cost a fortune. You don’t have to follow every trend. And you certainly don’t need to look like everybody else.
And that is where Chantelle Baker’s masterclass became about something much more interesting than makeup.
It became a conversation about how we see ourselves.
The Tips I Actually Took Home
For all the artistry on display, some of the lessons that stayed with me were refreshingly achievable.
There was no insistence that great makeup required an overflowing beauty cabinet or an intimidating number of steps. Instead, Chantelle continually brought beauty back to understanding what works for you.
For a simple day look, concealer and bronzer can be enough. A good mascara doesn’t require an extravagant price tag. An eyelash curler can transform the eyes. Sunscreen comes before primer, giving your skin essential protection before you begin your makeup.
And setting spray?
Before. During. After.
These are the kinds of tips you actually remember the next morning.
But perhaps the most refreshing lesson was one that could save us from an entirely different kind of beauty excess.
Stop Doing Makeup by the Rules
“Not everyone needs to contour.”
In a beauty culture that can make us feel as though every new technique needs to become part of our routine, there is something wonderfully freeing about hearing one of Australia’s leading makeup artists tell you that you can simply leave something out.
Chantelle doesn’t approach a face with a checklist.
She looks at the person.
If someone already has beautifully defined cheekbones, why automatically contour them? If someone has a smaller forehead, following the same contouring tutorial as everybody else can actually work against their natural proportions.
Her example of Sarah Jessica Parker illustrates the point beautifully. Chantelle explains how blush placement can be used to create balance on a longer face. Move it simply because another placement is trending and you can completely alter that balance.
There are techniques behind great makeup, but there is also something that can’t easily be taught.
Instinct.
“It’s intuitive, it’s your eye, it’s your vision, it’s what you think looks good.”
Chantelle describes becoming so immersed in the creative process that she can finish a face and struggle to remember exactly which products she used.
“Film it or write it down because I’ll forget.”
She’s not following a formula. She’s responding to the person sitting in front of her.
The Skill You Can’t Find in a Makeup Kit
And this is where Chantelle’s talent becomes particularly interesting.
During the masterclass she was asked how she came to work with the calibre of clients she does.
Her answer stayed with me.
Being a brilliant makeup artist is only part of it.
You have to be good with people.
Sitting in a makeup chair with a completely bare face is an unexpectedly vulnerable position. Celebrity doesn’t make that disappear. Chantelle talks about understanding that vulnerability, reading the person in her chair and knowing how to make them comfortable.
It is a skill that has nothing to do with the contents of a makeup kit.
And looking around the masterclass, at the people who had chosen to turn up for her, you could see the result of that philosophy.
Technical talent may have built Chantelle’s career. But the way she makes people feel has clearly built the community around her.
Confidence Changes the Face
Ask Chantelle how important confidence is compared with technical skill and there is no hesitation.
“Confidence is huge.”
This is where our conversation moves beyond beauty products altogether.
Chantelle speaks passionately about different bodies, skin tones, pigmentation and features. She celebrates the movement towards seeing more kinds of beauty represented and is particularly passionate about the message younger girls receive.
“You’ve gotta be you, you’ve gotta own it.”
As the mother of a daughter, it is something she thinks about deeply.
She grew up in the era of the ’90s supermodel, when the image of beauty presented to young women was far narrower. Today she celebrates seeing people who don’t conform to one traditional ideal occupying those same spaces.
Because, as Chantelle points out, when everybody begins trying to look like everybody else, beauty becomes considerably less interesting.
“Perfect is what?”
Perhaps that’s the question at the heart of the entire conversation.
Beauty Should Still Be Fun
None of this means Chantelle has abandoned trends.
She loves them.
Beauty, for her, is creative expression. A blurred lip, cream bronzer or electric blue eyeshadow can completely change the way someone feels.
There are no serious proclamations about what women should or shouldn’t wear.
Although she may draw the line at one thing.
The return of ultra-thin eyebrows.
As the mother of a teenage daughter, Chantelle admits she’s keeping a particularly close eye on that particular trend.
It’s a wonderfully human aside, but it captures her philosophy perfectly.
Experiment. Play. Change your look. Have fun with it.
Just don’t erase what makes you distinctive because somebody has decided something else is fashionable.
What Stayed After the Masterclass
For Chantelle, one of the most meaningful parts of the masterclass happened after everyone went home.
On stage, she admits she felt almost as though she were in a bubble. With the lights on her and the audience difficult to see, much of the night became a blur.
Then the messages started arriving.
People told her how much they’d learnt. Others sent photographs of themselves trying her techniques.
“That is what makes me so happy,” Chantelle says, “because I feel like I’ve done something to maybe change the way you feel or feel a bit more confident.”
And perhaps that is the real measure of what happened in that room.
I left with practical advice I’ll genuinely use. Setting spray before, during and after makeup. Sunscreen before primer. The knowledge that a $20 mascara can absolutely do the job. The power of an eyelash curler. And the revelation that an everyday face doesn’t require half the contents of the bathroom cabinet.
But what stayed with me most wasn’t a product or technique.
It was Chantelle herself and the philosophy that seemed to underpin everything she taught that night.
Work with the face you have. Don’t blindly follow the rules. Celebrate what makes you different. And remember that confidence has an extraordinary ability to change the way beauty is seen.
Chantelle Baker may have brought everyone together to talk about makeup.
We left having talked about something much more important.
How it feels to be comfortable being yourself.
Follow Chantelle Baker here.
